Chapter 1. The Bible and Monotheism

Chapter 1

The Bible and Monotheism

Revised and updated by the author

The Bible

The Bible has not always existed in the form in which we know it today. The various books which comprise the Bible were first bound together as pages in a single book in the 5th and 4th century BC. Prior to this, the sacred texts of Judaism consisted of a library of separate texts, each written on a scroll of which most were rewritten by the Prophet Ezekiel in the 6th and 5th century BC during the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. These scrolls made up a collection or library of sacred texts, but different congregations had and still have different collections of scrolls that are considered sacred.

It was not until the year 90 BC in a council held at Jamnia (Jabneh, Palestine) that the Jewish community achieved agreement on which works were to be considered canon (scriptures that are binding in matters of doctrine and practice). It was even later in the second century AD that Christian scholars decided only writings by Apostles would be accepted as Christian scripture; an idea that excluded the writings of other early church leaders such as First Clement which was written in the early second century AD by the bishop of Rome to the church at Corinth.

The formulation of the list of sacred works was not a straightforward one or without controversy for either the Jews or the Christians, although the Torah, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), were universally accepted as sacred text by Jews.

The Book of Ezekiel was problematic for the Jews because its description of the Temple differs from that found in the Torah, and it was not until an agreement was achieved that Ezekiel could be reconciled with the Torah before it was accepted. The Book of Ecclesiastes was questioned by some because they felt that its pessimistic outlook was at variance with Judaism. The Book of the Song of Songs (The Songs of Solomon) seemed much too erotic to be divinely inspired scripture, but eventually the viewpoint prevailed that its overt eroticism was really an allegory for God's love of Israel. The Book of Esther was debated for well over a century after Jamnia (90 AD), because the word God did not appear in it and because it introduced the feast of Purim, a feast that was not set forth in the Torah. There was general agreement that inspired scripture had ceased to be written at the time of Ezra, so (with the exception of Jonah and Daniel, which were written somewhat later) works written after about 400 BC and the council at Jamnia were not accepted as inspired.

But there were more problems to be discussed. Several other books were found in latter years of which a lot were much older than the Bible scrolls itself. For instance the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Jasher (this book was mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 10:13 were is written 'Is not this written in the Book of Jasher?' and in Samuel II 1:18 'Behold it is written in the Book of Jasher.' and many other sacred books of which they had even more disagreement. (The Forgotten Books of Eden, and The Book of The Cave of Treasures). At recent time (The Dead Sea Scrolls) has been found evidence that the composition of the Jewish as well as the Christian Bible was premature and should be considered for reconstruction.

Not only the Jews but also Christians had as many problems, if not more, to contend with in establishing their list of canonized works. Full agreement was never achieved, and the Bibles of Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity differ in some of their contents.

Keep in mind that the Apostles (Jewish) had many arguments with Paul (Roman) about the way to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and other subjects regarding the way to explain the Old Testament. Paul had his own interpretation about Jesus as the only Son of God, which was the beginning of the break between the beliefs of the Jews and Christianity, and later on in the sixth century AD with the Islam.

For instance, the Roman Catholic tradition accepts:

1 Esdras (Ezra), 2 Esdras (Nehemiah), Tobias (Tobit), Judith, the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 1 Machabees, and 2 Machabees as part of the canon, while Protestants consider these to be Apocrypha, books that might be useful to read but not sacred scriptures.

The Eastern Orthodox Church includes the books 'The Song of the Three Young Men', 'Susanna', 'Bel and the Dragon' and 'Prayer of Manasseh', books not found in the Roman Catholic canon. Furthermore, some of the pre Christian works accepted as scriptures by both the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox churches are not accepted as canon by Judaism.

During the first and second centuries BC, many different Jewish works were written, some in prophetic style and others in the genre of literature or history, books that did not become canonized by the Jewish community. Despite their not having been viewed as scripture by the Jews, some of these books are regarded as such within the Christian community.

For instance, eighteen of these pre-Christian books are published as part of the Roman Catholic scriptures:

Other Jewish texts, called Pseudepigrapha, were written during these same centuries or even as late as New Testament times by authors who used the names known from the earlier Hebrew sacred writings. For instance the Books of Josephus and Philo (both Jews), written in the first century AD, were not accepted because they were not written in the Hebrew language.

The Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran in 1947 proves the authenticity of most of these scrolls.

The best known of these Pseudepigrapha scrolls, of which most belongs to the so called Forgotten Books of Eden, are:

1. The Book of Jubilees2. The Books of Adam and Eve3. Life of Adam and Eve-Slavonic Version4. A Fragment of the Apocalypse of Moses5. The Martyrdom of Isaiah6. The book of Enoch7. The Letter of Aristeas8. The Apocalypse of Adam9. The Revelation of Esdras10. The Second Treatise of the Great Seth11. The Testament of Abraham.12. The book of Jasher13. The book of the Cave of Treasures

and several others of which most are published on this website.

'The Dead Sea Scrolls'

In these scrolls evidence has been found that most of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha books should be part of the Bible, though no one will add them in the 21st century, because that would destroy the Jewish and Christians belief in Monotheism. Shortly Christianity (the Pope) announced the Year 2000 as the year of Jubilee, but it would have done better to announce the year 2001 (the first year of the 21st century) as the start of reconciliation of the Bible and acceptance of the book of Jubilees and other Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha books.

The Dead Sea Connection

The authenticity of the Book of Enoch and other Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha books.

Hebrew scholars had long noted the similarities between some of the reactionary teachings in the Book of Enoch and the gospels according to the Essenes. a fundamental, yet very righteous religious community spoken of by classical scholars as having existed on the western shores of the Dead Sea.

This connection was strengthened after 1947 when it was realized that among the Dead Sea Scrolls, now considered to have been written by the Essenes, were various fragments of texts belonging to several copies of the Book of Enoch. Up until this time the only complete manuscript copies available to the literary world had been various copies written in the Ethiopian language of Ge'ez, the first of which had been brought back to Europe by the Scottish explorer and known Freemason James Bruce of Kinnaird following his famous travels in Abyssinia between 1769 and 1772.

Not only did the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the authenticity of the Book of Enoch, they also showed that it had been held in great esteem by the Essene community at Qumran, who may even have been behind its original construction sometime after 165 BC. More importantly, Hebrew scholars also began to identify various other previously unknown tracts of an 'Enochian' flavor among the Dead Sea corpus, and these included further references to the Watchers and their offspring the Nephilim. (in the next chapters I will come back to these beings)

Many of these individual fragments were eventually realized by Dead Sea scholar J.T. Milik to be extracts from a lost work called the Book of Giants.

Previously this had only been known from isolated references in religious texts appertaining to the Manicheans, a heretical Gnostic faith, that swept across Europe and Asia, as far as China and Tibet, from the third century AD onwards.

The Book of Giants continues the story told in the Book of Enoch, relating how the Nephilim had coped with knowing that their imminent destruction was due to the improprieties of their Watcher fathers. Reading this ancient work allows the reader a more compassionate view of the Nephilim, who come across as innocent bystanders in a dilemma beyond their personal control.

Note: Most of The Book of Giants is lost, there are only some fragments left but I hope more will be found in the Dead Sea scrolls in the coming years.

Consider that even at presently (2004), many translated parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are still unpublished due to leaders of the Roman Catholic Church who are unwilling to publish it in its entirety; in my opinion it is due to the fact there is evidence that monotheism is a mistake and that some scrolls contain information about the 'real' ancient history of mankind.

Monotheism

Jews as well as Christians and Islam, believe in one God (Monotheism). The reason this phenomenon has existed for almost 3,000 years is uncertain but Judaism is well known as the source of western monotheism. But Judaism's monotheism did not appear as a fully developed system. Rather, it developed over centuries. To fully appreciate the origins of contemporary Jewish monotheism it is helpful to return to the roots from which this stalk has grown.

The religion of the ancient Jews and Hebrews did not exist in a cultural vacuum. The various religions of the Semitic and pre-Semitic Middle East were, from the earliest recorded times, thoroughly polytheistic. It is obvious that ancient Jewish beliefs were derived from much older religions that were ALL polytheistic. In the first place the Sumerian and Babylonian beliefs which were on their turn most probably derived from very ancient stories.

Most stories written in the Bible we can find on clay tablets written in Sumerian and Babylonian language and they are at least 2,000 years older then the first written books of the Bible, including the stories written in Genesis. (see later chapters)

Consider that in the Holy Books of all religions there are written stories of other races and more then one God who lived on the Earth at the same time with both man and men, Sons of God, Watchers, Nephilim, Seraphim, Giants etc. (see also the Apocrypha book of Enoch, the Pseudepigrapha book of Jubilees and many others).

What is in this case the reason why most religions are still skeptical about the contents of these books and the clay tablets, myths, sages and legends?, if they believe unconditionally in ALL stories of their Holy Books why do they then still believe in one God, even if their Holy Books tell another story, and why do they not believe the other written stories of which most are much older then their own (most of the contents of their Holy Books are based on it) ?.

A simple example in Christian belief that there is more then one God (Spirit) is that from the New Testament on is spoken of THE FATHER, THE SON and THE HOLY SPIRIT. There is one more reason to be skeptical and that is the fact that there are several differences between the Jewish and Christian translations of the original scrolls. The answer to all these questions has not been given so far.

As mentioned before, even the translations of the scrolls differs from scholar to scholar. They have often been changed in the past and also in recent times. During the last 2,500 years the Bible has been retranslated several times from the original text, even the translation of the word GOD is still a problem as we will see.

Differences between the Torah and the Christian Bible starts from the first verses in Genesis 1, in the Torah is written:

Gn:1:1:'In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth'

And in the Christian Bible is written:

Gn:1:1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Let me first explain the meaning of God (EL) and God's (ELOHIM)

Elohim

Elohim is the common name for God.

It is a plural form, but 'The usage of the language gives no support to the supposition that we have in the plural form Elohim, applied to the God of Israel, the remains of an early polytheism, or at least a combination with the higher spiritual beings.

'Elohim has been explained as a plural form of Eloah or as plural derivative of El., Eloah grows out of Alah as El springs from Alah. Dr. Richley H. Crapo from the University of Utah (USA) explains it as follows :

Who were the Original Elohim?

Genesis 1:1 tells us that 'In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.' Of all the names given to God in the Hebrew Bible, Elohim is curious because unlike the others it uses a plural noun to identify God, while the other names, like El or Yahweh, are singular. Just why was the Hebrew God known both as El ('God') and as Elohim ('Gods')? El Elyon, God the Most High.

Before the Hebrew Bible was written, the Semitic religions of the Middle East (Sumerian and Acadian) universally distinguished between El, sometimes called Bull El to emphasize his great power and fertility in his role as the Father of the Gods, and the Great Assembly of those other gods, His children ?. (see later chapter 8 and 9).

He was also referred to as the Father of Years, and the Father of Humanity, names that emphasize his role the antecedent and ultimate source of all things. This name continued to be used for the Supreme God of the Hebrew religion in biblical times, although it had also come to be used as a generic term meaning '(a) god' as well. This expansion of a proper name for use as a general term of reference in biblical Hebrew after about 1000 BC can be seen as a step in the direction toward monotheism.

While the Hebrew term El, is best understood as a title, meaning 'God', the Supreme God of the Hebrews also had a personal name, Elyon (which is often rendered as 'the Most High' in English, rendering its significance as a name opaque.

The Book of Enoch was a vital source of knowledge with regard to their former existence, but I needed less tainted accounts of this apparent race of human beings.

In the Apocalypse of Adam we can find more Gods such as:

1.'The Eternal God', 2.'The Creator God'

In the Apocalypse of Moses we can find more Gods such as:

'JA'EL' (YAHWEH and EL), 'Eternal King' and 'Lord'.

So there are many names for the Gods and most of them are different beings as will be proven in this book.

Note: Although the Hebrew people continued to recognize the existence of the gods of other nations, they viewed them as subordinate to the God of Israel, and the use of His name as a generic term subsumed and subordinated them much as 'Xerox has come to mean 'photocopy' or as any facial tissue might be called 'a Kleenex' today'. The conclusion should be that Monotheism is not original the ancient belief but exists only from about 1,000 BC.

The only problem to, eventually, reconstruct the Bible still remains and that is the fact that many of the other authentic books as mentioned above are polytheistic in nature and can't be reconciled as canonical. With other words, if some or all of these books should be added to the cannon the whole Christian, Moslem and Jewish beliefs would fall of their pedestal.

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha books

I have already mentioned that I believe that most of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha books should be part of the Bible because most of them were originally written before the Pentateuch (Enoch and others). Even in the book of Jubilees is written about Enoch, so I will use verses from all books, including the Bible to explain my opinion.

Short description: More in-depth detail about The Garden of Eden, where it was situated and the life and times of Adam and Eve after they were expelled from the garden of Eden to the time that Cain kills his brother Abel. It tells of Adam and Eve's first dwelling - the Cave of Treasures -; their trials and temptations; Satan's many apparitions to them; the birth of Cain, Abel, and their twin sisters; and Cain's love for his beautiful twin sister, Luluwa, whom Adam and Eve wished to join to Abel. Parts of this book are found in the Jewish Talmud, and the Islamic Koran, showing what a vital role it played in the original literature of human wisdom and religion.

Short description: The Book of Jubilees is in certain limited aspects the most important book in this volume for the student of religion. Without it we could of course have inferred from Ezra and Nehemiah, the Priests' Code, and the later chapters of Zechariah the supreme position that the law had achieved in Judaism, but without Jubilees we could hardly have imagined such an absolute supremacy as finds expression in this book.

THE BOOK OF JUBILEES was known by two distinct titles even in Hebrew; (a) Jubilees (b) The Little Genesis (c) Apocalypse of Moses and other alleged names of the book. (c) 1 The Apocalypse of Moses. 2 The Testament of Moses. 3 The Book of Adam's Daughters. 4 The Life of Adam and others.

Note: In jubilees is spoken about weeks (7 years) and Jubilees (7*7= 49 years), so 1 jubilee is 49 years and 1 week is 7 years, (AM = After Creation)

The Book of Enoch tells the story of how 200 rebel angels, or Watchers, decided to transgress the heavenly laws and 'descend' on to the plains and take wives from among mortal kind. The site given for this event is the summit of Hermon, a mythical location generally associated with the snowy heights of Mount Hermon in the Ante-Lebanon range, north of modern-day Palestine (see below for the most likely homeland of the Watchers).

The 200 rebels realize the implications of their transgressions, for they agree to swear an oath to the effect that their leader Shemyaza would take the blame if the ill-fated venture went terribly wrong. After their descent to the lowlands, the Watchers indulge in earthly delights with their chosen 'wives', and through these unions are born giant offspring named as Nephilim, or Nephilim, a Hebrew word meaning 'those who have fallen', which is rendered in Greek translations as gigantes, or 'giants'.

What are we to make of the Book of Enoch?. Are its accounts of the fall of the Watchers and the visits to heaven by the patriarch Enoch based on any form of historical truth?. Scholars and the Church fathers would say no. They believe it to be a purely fictional work inspired by the Book of Genesis, in particular two enigmatic passages in Chapter 6 of the book of Enoch. (see also later chapters of my book)

Short description: The Book of Giants continues the story told in the Book of Enoch, relating how the Nephilim had coped with knowing that their imminent destruction was due to the improprieties of their Watcher fathers.

And the many other forgotten books.

With the above in mind we will try to figure out together the existence of several beliefs on Earth from earliest times until today.

In this book I will try to search for relations between the God's of the cultures from all over the world and as especially the God's of the Middle East and Europe (Jews, Sumerians, Acadians and Babylonians), India, Greece and Egypt.

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